“Thinking about something so sad, with everything else going on in the world, I don’t think it was the right thing to do,” grandparent Carol Bogard told Boston 25 news.

But parents say what’s worse is the school’s personal connection to the tragedy. Tom Pecorelli, a Newburyport High School alumnus, was killed on Flight 11.

“It’s very disrespectful, that’s one of the first things that comes to mind, it’s really disrespectful,” Pecorelli’s sister Angela Wadleigh told Boston 25 News over the phone Wednesday.

Wadleigh says when she heard the question, it immediately took her back to the worst day of her life.

“Out of thousands of examples you could use in math, this is not one you could use,” she said.

In a statement, Superintendent Susan Viccaro told us, “this was assignment was not intended to be disrespectful...this was an exercise of poor judgment by the educator who intended to use the historical event as a mechanics to engage students in a thoughtful discussion.”